Business briefs for July 21

July 21, 2014

Lisa Gregoire recently transitioned to a new role at the SW/WC Service Cooperative-that of senior director of teaching and learning services. Effective July 1, she replaced the retiring Bob Braun as the leader of this division.

Gregoire brings 23 years of experience in education to her new role - 18 in the classroom and five at the SW/WC SC. Most recently, she served as a school improvement specialist at the SC, supporting schools and districts not making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), organizing and analyzing data, providing professional development, supporting school leaders, serving as the district assessment coordinator for the SC's alternative learning programs, and much more.

Gregoire has a bachelor's degree from Southwest Minnesota State University in business education (with teaching and coaching licensure), as well as a master's degree from SMSU in educational leadership and development.

Zempel new Pioneer Public Television community relations representative

Pioneer Public Television has hired Nicole Zempel of Granite Falls to serve as a community relations representative serving western Minnesota and eastern South Dakota

Zempel formerly worked for six years as the director of the Granite Falls Area Chamber of Commerce, and she currently serves as the host of the Valley Voices Radio show on KKRC radio in Granite Falls. Zempel will continue hosting the show in addition to her new position with Pioneer, which involves connecting with members and business supporters of the Appleton based station.

"We are thrilled to have Nicole as a part of the Pioneer Public TV team," said General Manager Les Heen. "Her love and passion for the region is well known and we look forward to having her represent the educational and economic development mission of Pioneer to the communities we serve."

Zempel has an associate's degree from Minnesota West and is pursuing additional coursework at Southwest Minnesota State.

Edward Jones adds financial adviser

Edward Jones Financial Advisor Mike Leary announced today that a second financial adviser, Austin DeMuth, joined his office in Marshall on July 7.

"We're very impressed with Austin, and I'm sure our clients will be, too," Leary said. "Edward Jones prides itself on providing the best service possible to those investors who choose to do business with us. Austin will help provide the high level of service investors in Marshall area have come to expect from us as well as extend our services to new investors."

Edward Jones, a Fortune 500 company, provides financial services for individual investors in the United States and, through its affiliate, in Canada. The firm has 13,000-plus financial advisors who work directly with nearly 7 million clients.

Runnings announces company expansion plans

Runnings has announced that the company will expand to New York this fall, opening three new retail stores. This is the first major regional expansion in the company's 67-year history. The new locations will open this September in Canandaigua, Rome and Gloversville, N.Y. Each of the locations will be hiring roughly 80 new workers in each community.

"We explored several places to introduce a new region to Runnings, and we found upstate New York has tremendous communities for our unique retail development and friendly, hometown service," said Dan Herrmann, Runnings chief operations officer. "We don't just open stores, we want to be a part of the community, creating jobs, increasing the tax base and providing top quality brands with great products families use every day."

Runnings purchased existing, vacant retail space in each community and will use local contractors to develop the new stores for the Runnings experience. The three new locations will use a total of 300,000 square feet of retail space to serve the needs of thousands of new customers each year.